Singaporean cartoonist challenges official version of history
SINGAPORE: Cartoonist Sonny Liew swept the comic industry’s “Oscars” and is a hit at home, but the city-state has struggled with how to respond to his surprise bestseller, which challenges its own carefullyscripted version of history.
With a cast of aliens and robots and a mish-mash of influences, Liew’s graphic novel The Art of Charlie Chan Hock Chye appears at first glance more of a paean to history’s greatest comic book artists than a subversive tome.
But the story, which retells Singapore’s story from the 1950s to the present through the eyes of a fictional cartoonist, questions the official narrative hammered into citizens of the tightly-controlled citystate from young.
A central character is a reallife figure, Lim Chin Siong, the late popular left-wing trade union leader, who was a rival to founding father Lee Kuan Yew in the 1960s, and who was jailed during Lee’s rule.
The book initially caused alarm. On the eve of its launch, government agency the National Arts Council (NAC) withdrew an S$8,000 (RM25,300) grant given to Liew for the book — whose previous works did not touch on Singapore’s history — due to its “sensitive content”.
But the move backfired. The extra attention caused by withdrawing the grant helped turn the graphic novel into a hit, and it is now in its fifth print run and translated into four languages.
In July, Liew won three Eisner Awards, regarded as the Oscars of the comic industry, at Comic Con International in San Diego for the graphic novel, including one for Best Writer/Artist.
The arts council did issue a terse, congratulatory statement — but did not go so far as to mention the name of the book.
Highlighting his awkward position, Liew last week said he would return a NAC grant of S$19,000 for a new book he was working on in a bid to avoid “the compromises” involved in a relationship with the authorities.
Liew is fully aware that he is treading on sensitive ground and said he had made sure to rigorously check the facts in his work.
“I do realise this is Singapore so I’m very careful,” he said, with a knowing smile. AFP